Leaderboard

I play pubs and clubs. The idea of turning up at the Dog & Duck and saying, "I didn't bother to bring any backline, where's the venue's PA and sound guy?" is so preposterous that there's really no need to take the subject any further. Like everything else in music (and most things in life), it's horses for courses. If you only play big, well-organised gigs with excellent PAs, experienced sound guys, and superb monitoring, the why would you bother to haul around a valve head plus a 410? That's not a good description of my musical life.

In shocking news, the 72 year-old muso fails to trash his own legacy but instead emerges triumphant. F**k me, he can still sing.

Iv been building a few S Ray Style basses over the lockdown This one has American Ash body with dark grey grain filling Maple neck with Black walnut fret board with maple dot markers Seymour Duncan (passive ) 2x Volume and a Tone

After working on a video shoot for the band Dead Crow Road ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqdTRwFDmyY ) I decided to build a tea chest bass from those useful bits and pieces that you find down the shed. The tea chest bass comprises: 1960 pre CBS Brooke Bond tea chest, 2004 broomstick, Headstock sawn off of my 1958 Fender P Bass (NOOOOOOOOOO!!) :0) Construction Notes Using my P bass to obtain a template the headstock was cut out of a piece of wood with a jigsaw. A single schaller tuning key was fitted to the headstock . The headstock was then attached to the broomstick utilising a hanging rail from a wardrobe with some screws normally used to mount a mirror. Structural wooden support bars were added to the bottom of the tea chest A length of nylon strimmer wire was utilised as a string. Sounds great, just need to work on some form of transducer to amplify the bass.

Just before the world turned upside down I left my originals punk band and started jamming with some old mates, doing classic rock. Fast forward to now and we’ve started rehearsing again - no singer so no raised voices or greater spread of air from our lungs etc. All going great, really good to be playing again and I’ve both learned some great songs and become a fair bit better on the bass, and finally found a band that I can use a Jazz bass in (this for some reason makes me think I’ve progressed).

One band I dep for are all in ears (they provide me with a monitor when they use me) and if I got the regular gig I would buy whatever needed to comply with their way of working - but only for them. I can't stand the isolation of everyone in their own little bubble unable to hear each other talk. It kills interaction. Also I really like amps and cabs. I mean really like them. I don't want to use a backbeat and in ear monitors and effects to attempt to simulate what I can get by just plugging into an amp. You may well feel differently and that's fine. I would never tell someone else that my way is better for them. I'd also hope to be treated with the same respect.

Oh we provide our own PA, but I'd still never turn up at a pub/club gig without backline. For larger pubs we have a big Markbass PA that is also a superb bass rig, but for larger pubs that puts me behind the PA and standing next to a loud drummer, so I still want my own backline. For smaller pubs we take our vox-only PA so ... backline. One thing that really works for me is consistency. If I take either the same rig, or at least the same structure, to every single gig, then I don't need to waste time & energy at each gig trying to remember what I'm doing and how it all plugs together. So at every gig I play I know that my basses must be plugged through a head (which varies according to what sort of gig it is) into a cab (which varies according to what sort of gig it is) but always using exactly the same cables and sequence. Perhaps I should mention that at bigger gigs I also take a DI feed from the head and run that through the PA as a matter of course, but that's something that's a bolt-on to the backline, not the other way round.

I don't think I'd ever want to lose the backline. Although I am not a player who is rooted to the spot, I do like to find that place where you feel the notes through you. I could use a board for that experience but then you're carting stuff around anyway. I'll stick to amps but have no problem with other guys doing differently.

Ah, that's easy Mike, it's the sound of the very structures of musical cohesion being torn apart , limb by limb. Possibly by an alien being from another dimension. (I have absolutely no idea what's going on, only Tim knows, and he might explain this to his followers in the afterlife)

Little update, now the honeymoon period is over... Nah, who am I kidding? Still honey moon! I love this guitar. My Fender Stratocaster and the PRS look at it with envy, as I seem to just grab the SX Tele 9 out of... 9 times 😛 I took it to a local guy to get the frets level perfectly, and I haven't even changed the pickups. I love the bridge one, the neck one is not the best, but I don't want to change anything in it, I can't believe just what a great guitar is for £129 plus £50 for the fret levelling (it was only on the region around the 12th and 15th fret a bit, nothing major, but I do like to play guitar-hero a lot 😛)

Strange. I've never struggled for different tones. I've used mine for everything from funk to rock to disco to reggae .. and it's delivered every time.

Get that neck off, it’ll be a major faff otherwise.

I am sure I have seen a similar shade somewhere Elf but cannot find a Trace of it.🤢

Aplomb.

Claus Fischer on his BBP35.... fantastic sound !!! Claus is one of Germany's best known bass players. A long time Yamaha BB player. I think he even is the only German artist featured by Yamaha in their artist list for BB's.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaSe4FNuGvM&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR06KOmuBedaZ9DemC7nduLg7DyJFpOceedhLik8IdUpAOXQFgS42NPwLzM

I had an MIJ PB70 and sold it to fund a CIJ JB75-US. Coincidentally both are "US" versions so had Alder bodies and US hardware. Excellent, excellent basses. The PB was great and I was reluctant to sell, but other basses were doing its job and I'm more of a jazz bass man at heart. My CIJ Jazz is unreal. The quality of build is flawless, you can see woodgrain through the butterscotch paint, everything is fitted perfectly, the neck feels great and could only be better with a more satin finish, but the gloss is the best gloss neck I've played. It looks, feels and sounds stunning. And second hand it was around half the price of a new USA jazz bass. The only change I may consider is to add ashtrays and a thumb rest. The pickguard is pre drilled for them but the body isn't.

Late entry for August 2000 BC composition challenge from a total newbie to this enterprise. Done in Reaper with stock plug-ins (apart from a freebie transient editor for extra added murk), an SM55 mic, an Epiphone Sorrento. Drums by Jamstix, and a Bronco into MIDI into the 'Gutbucket' washtub bass VST by Samsara. ↓↓ Dunno if I've got in over the line but here it is anyway ↓↓

Here's my go for this month. The usual lo-fi gubbins but I managed to learn French just in time to parlez up some pretty fluent phrases, I'm sure you'll agree. Hmm. Mon Dieu!

Okay, okay - here you go...😁

Indegestion? Touch of GAS? Took some 'Gumtree'... I likes the Ibanez SR's... After buying a GSR200, nice and great value, I wish I threw some more $£ in and gone for the SR300. I also likes me 'Naturals'... So I 'Hit Submit' on a 2010 SR600... Ash Body, 5 Piece Jatoba/Bubinga Neck... 38mm Nut... Bartolini Mk1 pups £200... Hopefully I didn't get my pants pulled down to far?

Now you mention it, I recall that the term did indeed at one time imply a certain deficiency of some of those qualities which make us human. No such disparagement is intended on this occasion, the word simply being a contraction. I would moreover draw attention to the plump little dog which enters the scene at one point and pootles off again, visibly unimpressed by his master's exquisite performance of perhaps the greatest 60's British Soul hit ever. 'In the presence of genius, eh? Where's my dinner?'

I used to love playing this in a band with a real Hammond. There’s that magic moment when the keys come in. I could play that bassline all night just for that moment.

Depends how you play it and who your playing it with 😀

Nope. I love it. OK, it’s not difficult but I love the way it drives the song. It’s only boring if you’re bored.

Of course the sound engineer is happy to help DT get his sound - that's his job! He wouldn't be there if he didn't know how to work with Trucks' gear and how to get the best sound out of it. A mate of mine owns a big PA hire company and has worked with a lot of big names and done a lot of big events (he's also a very good guitar player). He can be quite contemptuous of a lot of sound engineers around. His idea is that it is his company's job for the artist to be comfortable with the sound onstage, and if they can be reasonable abut that then he can get a great sound out front.

I've managed to create some octavia-style fuzzes both gated and non-gated. https://auraplug.com/fidatabase2/downloads/octave-fuzzes/

Sounds like you need to bring out the baffle of shame.

Saw him last year, with the Magnum.

Or Relish?

Right now IME it very much depends on what kind of a band you are in, a what venues you play. Covers in pubs where the PA is your own and mostly for vocals, you will need a traditional bass rig. Pretty much anything else and you can do what you want. I sold all my conventional bass amplification and bought a Helix and an RCF745 FRFR powered speaker. I found that at the smaller venues I was being asked to turn down to the extent that I could hear more bass guitar from the guitarist's wedge monitor over on the other side of the stage then I could from my own rig directly behind me; and on the bigger stages even though I was using a Tech Soundsystems 1kW bass amp into 6x10 EBS speakers as soon as I stepped out of the direct "line of fire" of my rig I could only hear the bass in the foldback. For me the Helix and RCF cab is an ideal solution. If the foldback on the in-house PA isn't up to the job I have the RCF which I position so that it "fires" across the stage for the rest of the band to be able to hear me rather than out front where it could potentially mess up the PA balance. It also means that for gigs with multiple bands where stage space is at a premium I can place the speaker in a place where it wouldn't be possible to easily fit a traditional bass rig. For the bigger gigs I don't even bother with the cab and just use the supplied foldback. I've never noticed a problem with not being able to "feel" the sound. Most of the time I still couldn't even with a standard bass amp and speakers. The only time I've needed to use my FRFR cab to supply FoH bass sound the RCF was more than up to the task.

Really useful info - I'm very tempted by a couple of MIJ Jazzes on eBay. My resistance is weakening!

Well thanks for clearing that up.

Hi Heimrich, I'd love to see the bass. It sounds interesting. It's obviously seen some action over the years. The issue of not being able to lower the G string to touch the frets is probably a key to this. I've not watched this video, but I've seen and set up a few Warwicks. Have you dropped the bridge right to the bottom, and dropped the saddle? If this won't let the string touch the frets, then, maybe your frets are seriously worn. Please take a credit card/Drivers license/ID card etc and take the edge of this and lay the edge along the neck across 3 frets. 11, 12 & 13 will do nicely, and see if the card rocks. Try this under each of the strings. or longside them. I suspect the card will rock. This indcates there's some fret wear. This happens with bell-brass frets. If I'm right, then the frets will need to be replaced. For this take it to a good tech who won't spoil the neck by cutting the frets through the sides of the neck. One of the nice features of a Warwick is the hidden fret-ends. I have seen some people cut through the sides - this makes the re-fret job easier, but spoils the bass IMHO. I hope this is helpful. Richard

Someone correct me but I seem to recall reading that the pickups are Japanese made but to US spec.

I think it's more about the spec and the parts. Still MIJ but to USA specifications and, I think, with US p/ups.

I saw Cardiacs at the Camden Falcon in 1999. Tim, as part of The Sea Nymphs who supported, played a p bass which had a Boss Octave pedal gaffa taped to the lower horn. I remember thinking that his bass playing was wonderful. Regarding Dazed's comments above, listen to Fairy Mary Mag on Sing to God, I get the impression that that's Tim playing. Also if anyone can enlighten me as to what's going on with the bass on Eat It Up Worms Here (at 0:58) I'd be eternally grateful. It just sounds so good.

I recently went for an audition / socially distanced playthrough / chat (just the two of us) with a guy who is a sideman in a well-known pop band who is putting together a band for his side project who would be playing decent club gigs and the odd festival across Europe. He was asking about the amp I brought along and what amp / cab I would be using live when playing clubs, as well talking about the backline he used live – no mention of in-ears or helix setups or anything of that nature. There is a place for all different types of rigs depending on what the gig requires. If you are playing a tour of club gigs with a need to fly or to travel light, then a helix rig may be the only way to realistically go. You may prefer that, or see it as a compromise that you are forced to make – but it may be the best, or even only, way to do the gig. Obviously, some big productions pretty much require everyone to use in-ears. Personally, I hate seeing gigs without amps in small venues or places without a proper stage. To me it sounds cr*p, like a karaoke set-up. But I am aware that other people here think differently. My main gig at the moment is a tribute band, generally playing decent size clubs. The band leader has used all in-ear systems before and I thought I might have to bite the bullet and get some in-ears for myself. However, after the first rehearsal it became apparent that everybody else preferred to use amps on stage and the BL was happy to go along with that (although he uses his in-ears for his own personal monitoring). Sounds great…

If your amp's moving forward maybe some duct tape would help ?

Completely agree. You so right to mention the PA quality. Even on our small gigs I can get away with it as we have a decent RCF setup, which has 15” speakers to carry the bass.

I've had about five variants of this "company" pop up on my FaceBook feed offering £2000 guitars for £86. It's the biggest scam since Scammy McScamster opened up a branch of "Scams R Us" in Scamstown, Scamshire and offered a free scam with every scam purchased over £85. I'd avoid it, if I was you.

The matching headstock sets it off